


(Honestly) What Will Become of Me

by casey_sms (shinygreenwords), shinygreenwords



Category: The Social Network
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Infidelity, M/M, Promiscuity, Reconciliation, Recreational Drug Use, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-15
Updated: 2011-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:16:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinygreenwords/pseuds/casey_sms, https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinygreenwords/pseuds/shinygreenwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one in which Eduardo pretends to forgive Mark only so it'll hurt more when he dumps him. Somehow there is still a happy ending. For <a href="http://mark-eduardo.livejournal.com/24101.html?thread=245541#t245541">this prompt.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	(Honestly) What Will Become of Me

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt is so old, it predates the kink meme! Thanks to [](http://slasher48.livejournal.com/profile)[**slasher48**](http://slasher48.livejournal.com/) for letting me write this out to her even though it wasn’t the one she wanted most. She also helped clean it up along the way. She is just all types of awesome.

> _Honestly what will become of me  
>  don't like reality  
> It's way too clear to me…_
> 
>  _Flames to dust  
>  Lovers to friends  
> Why do all good things come to an end_ – 'All Good Things (Come to an End)' by Nelly Furtado

They meet again at a conference. It’s a small world really when you’re young and a billionaire. Eduardo can’t figure out who he wants to avoid more in this conference – the old men who keep leering at him, Sean fucking Parker or Mark. He wishes he could have an option D for All of the Above Douchebags. His therapist did say he had a lot of repressed resentment. Yeah, well, getting fucked over by everyone you ever cared for would do that to you. He learned long ago that no one cares for anyone but themselves. Except Mark. Mark cares about Facebook more than he cares for himself and since Facebook is from him, it means he has twice the ego.

He can see Mark making a beeline for him with that determined look that was going to spell trouble faster that he could say Facemash so he turned in the opposite direction and grabbed a champagne glass, downing it in one gulp even though he’d eaten nothing.

Eduardo can tell Mark is behind him. He reaches for another glass and without turning around he says, “You don’t get to talk to me.” He doesn’t wait to see Mark’s reply, doesn’t want to see the face that haunts his dreams.

*

Eduardo is not unaware that it’s no coincidence that he keeps ‘running into’ Mark at functions.

Every single time, Eduardo brushes him off or finds an excuse to talk to someone else, to do something else.

He’s rich now. He doesn’t need Mark.

(Deep inside, he knows its Mark’s money and he does _resent_ him for it. So sue me, he thinks to his therapist and resents her too for being right.)

*

Chris calls him up to catch up while he’s in town for yet another meeting. Eduardo doesn’t ask how he knows. He probably doesn’t want to know. Somehow it leads to Chris telling him that Mark isn’t doing very well. Eduardo thinks _is he okay? Is he happy?_ He opens his mouth to say, “I don’t give a shit.” Because it’s not fair and Chris knows better than to talk to him about Mark.

There is nothing but the sound of breathing for four long seconds.

Chris says, finally, “I thought you were better than that.”

Eduardo hates being judged, hates being reminded of his own inadequacy. “I thought you weren’t taking sides,” he retorts.

“I thought he could be better too,” Chris says judiciously like he’s King Edmund the Just or something.

Eduardo makes a face at his glass. It’s empty. He needs to buy more booze. He shrugs even though Chris won’t be able to see. There’s nothing left to say. He doesn’t know if he gets drunk first or if Chris hangs up first. He’s pretty sure that’s another friendship biting the dust.

*

He stops going to therapy. They keep telling him he needs anger management and things like cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressants and he doesn’t want it. He doesn’t need it.

Eduardo is fine.

*

At a bar, he meets a guy called Ben who says he’s a writer and he’s interested in Eduardo’s story. He wants to hear what Eduardo has to say about Facebook.

Eduardo doesn’t want to talk about Facebook.

So he tells Ben all about how big of an asshole Mark is. How Mark pulled all his shit on him and fucked him over for half a million dollars and a million members. He tells Ben that Mark betrayed his only fucking friend.

Ben blinks. “Wow. Over Facebook?”

“Mark is a fucking robot. Of course everything about him is Facebook.”

“This is fascinating. Tell me more.” Ben nudges another drink towards him and Eduardo is thirsty. Eduardo keeps talking.

*

Even when he is drunk he does not tell Ben the real story. That Mark _fucked him over_. That all he can think of these days is Mark. Fucking Mark. Holding Mark down, shoving his face down, gagging his stupid mouth and fucking him. He wants to tear Mark apart and make him bleed. He wants to make Mark cry. He wants to break him.

That’s what Mark did to him.

*

(He’s been holding out for so long.)

The next time Mark asks to talk to him, Eduardo says yes.

When Mark asks if they could have dinner together, Eduardo says yes.

It’s easy if he doesn’t think of Mark as the person who betrayed him. It’s a small thing. Eduardo has bigger and better plans.

He thinks he might begin to understand how Mark might have dropped him for Facebook. Grand plans make you feel invincible. The little things don’t matter. They are too tiny, too insignificant.

*

“Do you think you could-” Mark begins one day.

Eduardo says yes.

He can see Mark’s dimples when he smiles.

Eduardo has forgotten how beautiful it is.

*

When Chris sees that Mark is happy, he forgives Eduardo like Eduardo was the one who was wrong. Eduardo lets it go. Dustin calls it a family reunion and starts taking pictures.

*

They fall surprisingly fast back into step. Or maybe it’s not fast or surprising because when people look at them, they tell them that they could see it all along. That they were always meant to be. It’s confusing but they all say it like it’s a good thing so Eduardo smiles and agrees.

Eduardo thinks he used to see it. Back in Kirkland. Him and Mark. Mark and him. It didn’t matter. They were destined for something better. Now it is a means to an end and the ends justifies the means. (Maybe Mark won’t understand but he’ll understand the concept.)

*

It’s surprisingly easy to put up with Mark knowing he has an escape plan. He can let it go when Mark stays late. He can let it go when Mark accidentally stands him up for their lunch date. He can let it go without an apology. He no longer needs one.

*

They fuck like Mark is nineteen again, hot and desperate. Mark takes care of Eduardo, he fingers him so slowly that Eduardo tells him to hurry up. Eduardo swears he can see Mark mouth _I love you_ as he’s scissoring his fingers inside Eduardo and it’s sickeningly romantic.

“Fuck me,” he says to Mark and Mark obliges him but not before kissing Eduardo sweetly, licking into his mouth, hand stroking his face.

Eduardo is not sure why his heart is beating so fast, why he’s so scared that Mark will know. He doesn’t know why he kisses him just as eagerly, as if it were all real and not a fragile façade that will fall.

(Eduardo can’t turn his face away and Mark is staring at him, his blue eyes intense and bright. The programmer looks at him like he knows and loves him anyway.)

*

They have a three month anniversary, Mark takes a week off and flies them to a private island and they have sex. Lots of sex. Mark tells him he loves him.

Eduardo tells him he loves him too.

(Sometimes, it doesn’t feel like a lie.)

*

Eduardo wonders if he can let it go. If he could let Mark off. If he could let himself have this.

It’s gone too far already.

Its three more months before he gets the courage to do it.

(All good things come to an end.)

*

On the day of their sixth month anniversary, Eduardo gets ready for a romantic evening. He lets Mark kiss him.

Mark is late for work but he says he’ll come home early anyway. He buries his face in Eduardo’s chest one more time before detaching himself reluctantly.

Eduardo smiles and jokes that it’s because he’s CEO, bitch.

Then, for the first time since he’s reconnected with Mark, he goes out to get completely wasted.

He finds a hot chick.

She’s more girl than lady. Skinny but flat-chested. Still he can admire the sleek line of her body. She’s wearing a shirt and pencil skirt but Eduardo knows her type. She’s waiting for her friend but her friend will never show up. She’s also got a hint of a tattoo on the nape of her neck. After he buys her a drink, she kisses him and passes him a tab in the tangle of tongues.

They stumble home, the skirt ends up on the floor and Eduardo fucks her in their bed. Her dark hair has been freed from the bun and it’s falling down over her breasts in loose waves. She’s riding him when the door flies open and Mark is there, hand frozen in midair.

She is shamelessly bouncing on his dick. She looks over her shoulder carelessly, flipping her hair to one side.

“Wanna join in, babe?” she says to Mark with a wink.

Mark is speechless, confused, his eyebrows knitting together.

“I bought you a present, Mark,” Eduardo slurs, laughing. His hands are on the girl’s ass. He moves one hand up to cup her left breast lazily as she moans.

“I don’t- Why would you-”

“Come on, hon, it’ll be fun,” she giggles. “I’d like to watch.”

“I’d like you to leave,” Mark says in an unsteady voice. “Please.”

She pouts. “You don’t mean that, darling.”

“I do. You have no right to call me that. For your information, you’re fucking my _boyfriend_ and today is our six month anniversary and my plans have been shot to shit so I’d like you to leave right now.” Mark doesn’t know why he saying all of this but he wants to say, that’s Wardo and get your hands off him, he’s mine.

Her eyes widen and she stops. “Wardo baby, is that true?”

Mark jerks like he’s being slapped.

When Eduardo doesn’t say anything, she does slap him. She calls him an asshole as she’s picking up her clothes. She tells him she doesn’t like being _used_ and she storms out.

Mark is there at the doorway, face shadowed.

Eduardo is naked, clothed only by hickeys and scratches.

Mark walks off and Eduardo doesn’t do anything. He wonders if he should go back to sleep.

Then Mark’s hands are gently cupping his face, pressing a bag of peas wrapped in a towel to his cheek.

It’s cold.

Eduardo grabs his wrist. “What are you doing?”

“She hit you,” Mark says like he didn’t deserve it.

“So we’re going to pretend I didn’t just fuck someone in this bed?” Eduardo sighs loudly. He wants to pick a fight. “Nothing ever bothers you does it?” he says bitterly. “As long as Facebook is fine.”

“You wanted my attention,” Mark states.

Eduardo is surprised he remembers.

“You’re picking a fight because you want an excuse to-,” Mark stumbles over the words but he manages to get them out. “To break up with me. I don’t want to.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “So you fucked her once or a handful of times. You’ve probably fucked me more than that and I know I’ve fucked you more.”

“You fucked me over, Mark,” Eduardo says in a low voice.

“Yes,” Mark says, looking pained. “You said you forgave me.”

“I changed my mind.”

Mark rocks back onto his heels, kneeling on the bed. “What?”

The words are unexpectedly hard to get out. Eduardo spits them out like poison, drawing on all the hurt and pain. “I don’t love you, I never loved you. I hope you die alone and miserable.”

“You don’t mean that,” Mark stutters. “You’re drunk. You should-”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Eduardo snaps. “I hate you.”

Mark’s bottom lip trembles. “Wardo-”

“You don’t get to call me that.”

Mark shuts up.

“Get out,” Wardo says.

Mark doesn’t move.

“Get OUT!” Wardo yells.

“This is my place too,” Mark says quietly.

“I don’t care. I don’t want you.” Eduardo doesn’t want to see the hope in Mark’s eyes, the forgiveness. No, he’s on a train wreck and he’s going to ride it through to the end.

“You’re not yourself, Wa- Eduardo, maybe you should-”

He forces himself to meet Mark’s eyes. “I don’t want to see your face ever again. You- You disgust me AND I WANT YOU TO GET THE FUCK OUT.” Eduardo throws the bedside lamp at the wall, hearing it shatter with a satisfying smash.

Mark flinches and bites his lip before sticking his hands into his pocket. There’s a velvet box there.

Mark gets out. It’s raining. He brings up the keypad to speed-dial Chris. He calls no one. He checks into a crappy motel, soaking wet.

He strips off his hoodie, the box still in the pocket.

His plans have been ruined.

*

Mark lies to Chris and tells him it was a mutual breakup.

He doesn’t want Chris to know what happened because then Chris would be angry at Wardo.

Chris doesn’t believe him.

“I’m not going to change my mind,” Mark says, not missing the irony of it all.

(Dustin stops sending him Sad Keanu macros after a week.)

*

Eduardo goes out and picks people up. People yes, girls, guys. He’s not picky. He’s rich and good-looking and it’s so easy.

He takes them home and fucks them in their bed. Sometimes, they fuck him. It’s just his bed now. The sex is sloppy and dirty.

He has not changed the sheets.

*

When Eduardo fucks a C-list reality TV host, it makes the news.

He is a playboy.

*

Mark changes his weekly stay at the motel to a three-month long stay.

He doesn’t want to look for a new place. He already has a place.

*

One day, he gets drunk and he fucks a girl in the bathroom. She’s heavy, legs wrapping around his waist and he almost drops her. The angle isn’t that great and her heels are digging into him. It’s not that great but he comes and then he fingers her and she comes.

He doesn’t even get her number.

It’s just sex.

He goes back to the place he refuses to call home.

*

Mark does it again and again.

He even finds the C-list celebrity and fucks her too.

She’s a terrible lay. He knows he’s better than that.

He is the next billionaire playboy.

(Chris isn’t talking to Mark anymore.)

*

Finally, he sees Eduardo.

The world is even smaller when you’re young and a billionaire and sleeping your way through the hordes of people who want to be you.

He’s in an alley beside a nightclub. Eduardo’s jeans are so tight they look like they’re painted on. Eduardo is flirting with a man. Mark recognizes the signs, Eduardo laughing and throwing his head back. Mark can see the slender line of his neck, the way his Adam’s apple bobs and- Mark’s seen enough. It’s an old man. The guy is practically old enough to be Eduardo’s father.

Mark interrupts them saying that he has business to do with Eduardo.

The man recognizes him.

Mark tips his head like ‘yeah he sued me and we hooked up and then we broke up so what? We made Facebook’.

The guy fucks off pretty quick.

Eduardo turns away, not bothering to acknowledge Mark. His breath is frosting in the air.

“No,” Mark says. “You don’t get to do this to me,” he says flatly, throwing Eduardo’s line back at him. Mark can’t feel his hands.

Eduardo curls his lip. “You can’t come up with anything original? My leftovers, really?” he sneers. “Thought you can do better than that.”

“You wanted to get even right?” Mark says, cutting to the point. “Revenge. Justice. Whatever.”

Eduardo leans back against the wall and digs into his pocket for his cigarettes. He taps one out, putting it in his mouth and letting it dangle obscenely.

“You froze the account, I cut you out. I hurt you so you hurt me. So you went out and fucked a bunch of people. I went out and fucked a bunch of people,” Mark lists like they’re talking about how many servers they need to buy. “Are we even now?”

Eduardo takes out a silver lighter and flicks it, cupping his hand around the flame and bowing his head towards it. The tip glows once and then he’s blowing the smoke in Mark’s face. “Not everything is about you,” he says with a shrug, tapping the ash onto the pavement. Mark sees the embers flare then die.

“Are you happy?”

Eduardo shrugs again. He takes a deep drag. (Every cigarette he smokes is seven minutes of his life he won’t have to live.)

“Wardo,” Mark says brokenly.

Eduardo can’t look at him. He finishes his cigarette and stubs it out under his expensive shoe. “I’m going to get a drink,” he says. (It’s polite to say ‘a drink’. What he really means is that he’s going to get drunk.) He pushes himself away from the wall without looking back.

When he’s drunk enough, he smiles and says, “Let’s fuck at my place.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mark says, sounding like he’s choking, but Eduardo knows he’s lying, his eyes are dark and he wants to fuck Eduardo.

(A lot of people want to fuck him – he likes making people happy.)

*

Eduardo is fumbling with Mark’s hoodie. “Why don’t these have any buttons,” he mumbles.

When he sticks his hands down Mark’s pants, Mark can feel that his hands are cold.

Mark lets Eduardo take the lead, lets him press him into the bed, the familiar feeling of the sheets on his back.

“I wanted to hold you down and fuck you. I wanted to make you choke on my dick. I wanted to take you dry. I wanted you to bleed and I wanted to see you cry. I wanted to fuck you up,” Eduardo says, leaning into Mark’s face. “I wanted to be the one to break you.”

“Do it,” Mark says, chin tilted up stubbornly. “If that’s what’ll make you happy. If you want to, then do it.”

Eduardo just keeps looking at Mark.

Mark deliberately grabs Eduardo’s hand and puts it over his wrist.

Looking down, Eduardo yanks his hand away.

“I don’t know what I want anymore,” Eduardo says, laying down next to Mark instead. “Maybe you should do it. To me.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t do it,” Mark says feeling stupid when he’s said ‘do it’ that many times in the last thirty seconds. They are talking like teenagers. He doesn’t want to ‘do it’ to Eduardo. It’s not appealing at all.

“What do we do now?” Eduardo asks, sounding lost.

Mark reaches for his hand and hope springs in his chest when Wardo doesn’t pull back. He takes a deep breath. “I wanted to propose to you on our sixth month anniversary. After- After what happened, I’ve wanted to tell you this so many times. I wanted us to be together. I mean I still want us to be together again. I want us to start over. I want to tell you that I love you and I hadn’t changed my mind.”

When Eduardo doesn’t say anything, Mark rushes on, “You don’t have to answer now, of course you don’t have to but I just,” he looks down to where their hands are joined, “I wanted you to know. I want you but what I want more than that is I want you to be happy.”

Mark eyes are locked on Eduardo’s. He is barely blinking, like he’s afraid if he closes his eyes, it’ll be over too soon.

“I think I want,” Eduardo starts and stops. “Can you, I have no right to ask anything of you anymore but I want- I want you to hold me.”

Mark pulls Eduardo in so their foreheads touch. “I want you to have what you want,” Mark says feeling Eduardo’s breath puffing warmly against his face.

Eduardo cannot remember when he last felt like this with anyone else. It’s always been Mark. It feels right. Eduardo thinks about all of the hurt and one by one, he cuts the strings to the weights. “I want you to stay,” Eduardo confesses in a whisper. It’s frightening to have what he wants.

“I want that more than anything.”

*

In the morning, Eduardo wakes up and Mark is next to him. It’s real.


End file.
